Hi,

I'm currently working on a 'Levels based' puzzle game. The game is a remake of a game I made for Amiga 10 years ago. Back then I had two different versions of the game, each with more than 100 levels! I'll strip out some of the less interesting levels but I should end up with at least 140 good levels to use. I'm not sure how to go about marketing the game.

The first (greedy :D) choice would be to release the game containing about 80 levels and then sell a level add-on pack at a later date. I'm not sure if I'm keen to do this. Has anyone had big success with level pack add-ons?

I'm more tempted to release the game with about 80 levels, then after a month or two I'll release an update which contains another extra 40 levels built in, for FREE! ;) Then another couple of months I'll update it with another 40 levels, maybe including some freshly designed ones. The game price will increase slighly when I get to the 160 levels version.

I guess Steve has the experience with level add-ons with expanding Dweep from the original to the current Dweep Gold. I don't know if I want to mess about with Level add-ons, I'd rather just build up a 'big value for money' package like Dweep.

Thanks in advance for any advice,

Paul

200 levels all ready to go before you start? Luxury!

Weed out any substandard ones, and release the whole shebangle, I reckon. If you want to do an add on pack, make it up of all new levels.

Something about the idea of holding them back for an add on pack later strikes me as being a little dubious...

Instead of thinking about the game as 1 game with add on level packs, you may want to think of it as 3 different editions of the game.

Game 1 could be the basic name: "Whatever", with say 40 levels.

Game 2 could be "Whatever" Deluxe, with say 80 levels.

Game 3 could be "Whatever" Deluxe Gold, with say 160 levels.

This would leave you with plenty of options, price points and opportunity's to market, promote and sell the different games.

Alfie

Just had another thoght about the level split for the different games and the price points.

If you did game 1 with 40 levels at $14.95

Game 2 with 80 levels at $19.95

Game 3 with 160 levels at $24.95

The customer would percieve that they are getting great value from Game 2, by getting a game which is percieved to be twice as big as game 1 and it will only cost them an extra$5, or even better get game 3 and they get a triple sized game for an extra $10.

Alfie

Quadruple sized in fact. But I still say, be kind to your customers and hand over the lot. You've already got them all there already. And they're second-hand goods.

Originally posted by Anthony Flack
200 levels all ready to go before you start? Luxury!
Something about the idea of holding them back for an add on pack later strikes me as being a little dubious...

Yeah, I didnt really explain myself too well about why I'd want to hold back the levels in the first place.

The original levels took hours to create and I have just under 200 unique levels to go with (about 50 of those will be filtered out.) Each level can take anything from 5 minutes to a few days to figure out. I made the original game levels 10 years ago so I don't know how to complete many of the levels myself!, so I'm looking at quite a big job to sort them out out (many weeks). I don't want any accidents with impossible levels slipping in, or levels that are way too hard being played too early.

So, the idea is to gather up enough to make a good package of levels without compromising on game quality. I'd like to spend a lot of time on the game 'engine' and presentation rather than spending too much time sorting out a huge pile of levels. Then add more value once the initial game is released and I have more time to focus on expanding the package.

I'm quite set on the idea to release the game with about half the available levels and add more levels in time. I don't really want to confuse matters with multiple versions and level packs. But I was still interested in other peoples experiences with level packs. The fact that Dweep is only available as a full "Gold" package is in itself interesting.

Cheers,

Paul

Originally posted by alfie
The customer would percieve that they are getting great value from Game 2, by getting a game which is percieved to be twice as big as game 1 and it will only cost them an extra $5, or even better get game 3 and they get a triple sized game for an extra $10.

I seem to remember Steve saying (in the case of Dweep) most people ended up splashing out for the 'big package' option anyway. As you describe yourself, it does look like good value :D

Svero as started a thread Add on percentages, for is Argon game.

He is getting exceptional results, IMHO.

You may want to use the Level pack add on strategy after all.

Alfie